Day 2.4: Fromista to Carrion de los Condes (20km/12.5 miles)

I slept last night!! All through the night. It was glorious and I felt refreshed this morning. No more dorm-style overnights for this princess pilgrim!

Today felt fairly short, probably because there was a village every 5km or so. I started in the dark at 7 and navigated my way out of Fromista. It was flat and I was moving along at a good clip. The day could have been totally along a two lane, but fairly major road had I not bumped into a mother daughter duo at the first coffee break. Loretta and her daughter are from Toronto and are walking the Camino to celebrate Claudia’s 40th birthday. They had a great rapport with each other so when they headed off on the “scenic” route, I went with them. It was lovely along a river and there was shade. We went past the most interesting “forest.” I really need to know what this was.

Clearly it is man made.

I stopped with Loretta and Claudia at the next town for a cold drink and just as we were leaving Kari from Alberta was coming in so I said goodbye to mom and daughter and had a cafe con leche with Kari and then we walked together.

Kari and I seem to keep finding things we have in common and I enjoyed chatting with her for a while. She is on her third Camino and I on my second and we both have a pretty good idea of what works and doesn’t work for us. She needs frequent breaks to rest her feet and refuel. I prefer plowing on until I reach my destination so I left Kari in a lovely little park in the shade and walked the rest of the way into Carrion de Los Condes on my own. The scenic path met back up with the roadside path so the rest of the walk wasn’t much to talk about.

In the area where Kari stopped to take her break we saw our first bodegas! Bodega means cellar and it is where wine is stored. They are built into hills so they are partially underground and keep the wine at a perfect temperature. In this town there were three that I saw.

I need to learn more about them, but at least here it seems like the are community wine cellars? Obviously, they come in all different styles.

As I was leaving that town, a bunch of tourists were reboarding a bus and a few pointed to me. As happened to me last year at the wine fountain in Irache, I was part of the local flavor people had paid to experience. “Look, there’s a pilgrim now!”

It was a somewhat hot slightly uphill slog into Carrion de Los Condes without much to see.

Field of dead sunflowers can get depressing.

But soon I could see the town and perked up! My Spanish lunch was now imminent!

It was just a little after noon so when I passed a church with it’s doors open, I stopped in briefly. It was a sweet little church.

I lit a candle for my dad and sat down for a little while to think about what he would make of this journey I am on. I am pretty sure he would this is is awesome!

i passed a couple from South Korea who were doing the Camino with their daughter.  They are distinctive because they pull a small cart with their packs on it  I figured they were resting and walked by

Later when entering the town I saw Loretta and Claudia and they told me that the mother had injured her ankle and could not walk  they rearranged the wagon so she would sit on it and be pulled  I hope she can recover so they can continue their Camino  they are experienced hikers and are not sure of what caused this injury.

After the check-in and shower routine, I went to the restaurant at the Hostal I am staying at. There, at the first table were Denise and David who I bunked with my first and second days out of Burgos.

I invited myself to join them and we got to catch up. I hadn’t gotten any contact info from them or a picture so this was a chance to do that.

My lunch was killer! I had the Shrimp in garlic and olive oil. The waitress brought it to the table and asked me if I was ready? Of course! She took off the lid and the shrimp was bubbling away! I stopped up every last bit of it with bread. I followed that with a salad of all kinds of things. Denise had gotten the same thing and had already been served so I could see what it looked like. It was interesting and a perfect addition to the shrimp

They are staying at the same place as I and, as is Kari who I met up with after lunch and we went to a grocery store looking for some food to take with us tomorrow as there are no services for the whole 17km.

Tonight, in the church right across the street, there will be a guitar concert that I will go to. There seems to be a lot to see in the town. I will admit to sticking close to my home base. Maybe I will explore a little after the concert.

These last two church photos are from the church across the street where I will be attending the guitar concert.

Later that same evening…

The Guitar Concert was beautiful. It was put in the Camino Arts. This is one of those things that just happens by luck and timing. The acoustics in the church made the music of just one guitar rich and full. The performer was passionate and very talented. It made for a great way to enjoy the evening.

As I am sitting here in the plaza with a glass of wine at nearly 10pm, I hear children playing    right in the square  this is the third night in a row I have listened to kids playing games at what us would consider very late at night for little ones. They sound so happy. Their parents aren’t nagging at them, telling them what they can and cannot do.

Each of the three nights the scenario was just about the same. The adults were at the bar, talking with friends, drinking wine and eating tapas and the kids had a soccer ball they were playing with. I am starting to think that this is the Spanish culture. It is so different from what we know in the US.

Reflections

I am only 4 days into this Camino, but I am enjoying myself so much. It is very different from my experience last year. I am not sitting around with large groups of people deep in conversation about blisters, plans for tomorrow and world problems. And, I am not arriving, eating and going to bed by 6pm.

Part of it is that I didn’t start by crossing the Pyrenees. So, I am not behind before barely getting started. But, part of it is the 11 months I had the think about changes I wanted to make in my walking experience. I am happy with how it is working out so far!